92.4
YALE ALUMNI WHEKLY
THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION,
One Great Change in the Character
of the Head—Other Points.
IT.
An eminent Oxford professor re-
cently visited and lectured at the lead-
ing American universities. His visits
were not hurried, and he had every pos-
sible opportunity for becoming ac-
quainted with our university faculties
and their work. In the Nineteenth Cen-
tury for January, Professor Gardner
gives at some length his Impressions of
American Universities. It is always
profitable, if not always pleasant, to
see ourselves as others see us. It is
often surprising.
Perhaps nothing is more surprising,
as coming from an English professor,
than the following observations of Pro-
fessor Gardner: “Oxford and Cam-
bridge are, perhaps, the most complete
democracies in existence. The Con-
gregation at Oxford, and the Senate at
Cambridge, comprising all the resident
teachers, have a power which is almost
unlimited in matters of finance, of or-
ganization, and of ordinance. . . In
America the power is less evenly
divided. And the President is
often the real repository of power in
the organization. It is the’ most
marked feature of American life,
whether political, commercial, or edu-
cational, that power in every institution
seems to gravitate into the hands of
one man.”
Yale has certainly been such a mon-
archy. Its presidents have been prophet,
priest and king in one, after the
order of Melchizedek. And it is a glor-
ious line, of which all Yale men are
devoutly proud. But the royal prerog-
ative will probably depart from the
next President of Yale, as was shown
in the preceding paper. His adminis-
tration must: be democratic, after the
English fashion. Another prerogative
will also be wanting, unless the election
defeats the expectation even of Cor-
poration members. The next President
of Yale will probably not be a clergy-
man. He will not be the head of the
“Church of Christ in Yale College.”
He will not officiate as Priest at the
great religious functions of the Uni-
versity,—probably not even at. ‘“Morn-
ing Prayers.” That simple and naked
function, so crude, so incongruous, often
so abused, but after all so inexpressibly
dear to the Yale graduate’s heart, be-
cause Yale men have so few supports
for the ritualistic impulse which is
dormant in them all, and which is of
the very essence of long historical
tradition,—the Seniors’ bow to the
President, will probably be abandoned.
The priestly prerogative is almost es-
sential for its continuance. Other
priestly functions will be missed in the
next President, unless some candidate
acceptable to Corporation and alumni
shall consent, as President Woolsey did,
to be invested with the priestly dignity
ex-of ficio.
But if the next President cannot be
king and priest, he can still be prophet,
and that is an august domain. To fore-
see the numberfess ways in which this
great institution of learning, while be-
ing, as all such institutions must be, in
some degree a reflex of its social and
civil environment, shall. also lead the
men of the new epoch, now dawning
upon Americans, to the best possible
performance of the largest tasks; to
provide duly, with forces already in
hand, for the proper training of minds
which must cope with the large prob-
lems of diplomacy. and international
commerce now looming up before this
people, or, in case forces now in hand
are insufficient, to secure fresh forces for
the needful answer to any demand now
to be made by the country upon its
higher institutions of culture and train-«
ing; to help Yale to represent and at the
same time to guide the new era,—this is
task for a prophet, and the single func-
tion is enough. If not Melchizedek. at
least Haggai, and “the glory of this lat-
ter house shall be greater than of the
former.” :
KNOX Spring Hats are Out.
tions.
YALE MUST LEARN FROM OTHERS.
It would be a great mistake for the
new administration to break violently
with the past. And yet Yale would do
well to look less askance upon the suc-
cessful achievements of sister institu-
Many of the vexing problems
which now confront her have been
solved, in one way or another, by Har-
vard, Cornell, Columbia, and other
great wumiversities. Yale must profit
positively by the great successes of her
noble rivals, as well as negatively by
their mistakes.
Yale in turn must risk more mistakes,
in order that her experience may be
more positively profitable to her rivals,
and that she may bear her fair share in
the expenses of progress. For progress
must always be at the expense of mis-
takes. Noblesse oblige. Better mistakes
with progress than the even tenor of a
way to the dry rot,—the greatest pos-
sible mistake. Yale’s undergraduate
body has long been in close touch with
other great undergraduate bodies. It
has learned more lessons from and
given more lessons to them, than Yale’s
faculty, as an educational body, has
been willing to learn from or able to
teach to other great faculties. And
both undergraduates, Faculty and
alumni of Yale are much too com-
placent and self-satisfied. Loyalty is
fine. But blind loyalty is mediaeval.
It breaks out into manifestations of
ridiculous partisanship. :
RIVALRY IN NUMBERS.
And now the delicate topic of the
rivalry between our great universities
has been touched, and must be still
further handled. Rivalry there is and
must be, and even the lower form of
rivalry in numbers of students. This
is the fierce temptation that assails
every university administration. In-
crease in students brings increase in
revenue,—or should bring it, unless the
eleemosynary evil spreads. Of this evil
more must be said later.
For good or for evil, the community
is apt to gauge the success of a uni-
versity by the number of its students.
An administration craves this form of
success. It ts human nature that it
should. The administration will, there-
fore, more naturally favor making the
university privileges easy of access and
retention. Unless the greatest care is
exercised this will be done at the ex-
pense of high standards of scholarship
and training. It is more apt to be done
under a highly personal administration
than it can be under a faculty admin-
istration, where the scholarly pride of
departments and instructors is enlisted
in favor of high standards, with high-
toned disregard of incomes and deficits.
But no administration, personal or fac-
ulty, can utterly ignore the sources of
its revenue. If it cannot make univer-
sity privileges easy of access and reten-
tion, it must make those privileges so
alluring by reason of subjects taught
or methods of teaching, that wise men
will conquer every. difficulty in order
to secure them, and it will not put un-
necessary difficulties in their way.
The most alluring method of teaching,
however, is by no means always the best.
To the majority of our students, from
youth up, the most alluring method is
that which shifts the burden as much as
possible from their own to the teachers’
shoulders. Election of subject and the
lecture method of instruction are pas-
sing down from our higher university
courses, where they properly belong,
into our secondary and = grammar
schools, where they take pupils already
enervated mentally by excessive kinder-
gartenism and waft them pleasantly and
without serious mental effort up to the
gates of university privilege and over
the slender barriers there set to en-
trance.
YALE'S RESOURCE.
It may be Yale’s mission to oppose
this tendency, and to insist ion a more
restricted elective privilege in the lower
years, and on the old-fashioned labori-
ous acquisition of knowledge by the
pupil.
But if she feels called upon to make
her university privileges difficult of ac-
cess by reason of the severer require-
ments and methods of teaching of her
two lower years, she should certainly
make those privileges more and more
alluring by reason of subjects taught
and the liberal methods of instruction
which are here perfectly in‘place. The
Elective courses of Junior and Senior
years must be made fully elective, and
much richer and more varied than now.
But why should the path to them be.
unnecessarily narrow? Why _ should
there not be more than one path to
them? Why should there not be two
or more courses of required work,
either one of which shall lead after two
years to the fullest elective privileges
of Junior and Senior years, and to the
A.B. degree? As it is, the access to
Yale’s rich elective and university
courses is barred by the stern require-
ment of two ancient languages. Grant-
ing all that Judge Hoar claims for the
classics, in his recent letter to the Jn-
dependent, many men will crave univer-
sity training who do not look forward
to public life, and do not wish to study
Greek. Yale owes it to them and to
herself to remove all unnecessary ob-
stacles in the way of their full enjoy-
ment of university privilege. Yale
might even offer as many as four col-
legiate courses of required work for
two years. These required groups of
studies might cluster around (a) an an-
cient language; (b) a modern lan-
guage; (c) mathematics; (d) a natural
science. The barrier of the dead lan-
guages would thus be removed, and
more intimate connection made with
the great public school system. Two,
or possibly three of these required
groups could be offered by the Aca-
demic Department as now constituted.
Four could easily be offered with such
a union of Yale College with Sheffield
School as was suggested in the previ-
ous paper. /
But whatever rivalry exists between
Yale and her great sister institutions, it
should not preclude mutual affection,
and cordial comparison of means and
ends, all laboring together, though on
slightly differing lines, for the upbuild-
ing of American manhood and woman-
hood. “By their fruits,” not by their
numbers, “ye shall know them.” ~
A. 33;
Fresaman Baseball.
The members of the Freshman base-
ball squad, which has just been reduced
to about twenty-seven, are still working
in the cage, and will probably not be
taken to the field until about Easter.
At that time a temporary captain will
be appointed. -It is impossible yet to
form a very accurate estimate of the
strength of the team, but from present
indications, it will not be above the
average. ‘The Class is well represented
on the University squad, which includes
seven Freshmen.
B.C... Chamberlin, .P.G.,.:. who 1s
coaching the squad, is paying especial
attention to the form of the players.
No work in batting has been done yet,
and the practice has consisted in stop-
ping grounders and throwing to first
base.
~ The first game of the season comes
on April'5th and will be, as usual, with
the Hopkins Grammar School.
> =~ “=
> S23 2
Cruiser Yale’s Guns and Colors.
The naval appropriation bill for the
current fiscal year which passed the
Senate on March 1, bore this clause,
which officially turns the guns and
colors over to the University until they
are needed again by the United States:
“The Secretary of the Navy is hereby
authorized to transfer to the officers of
Yale University the custody of the two
Maxim rapid-fire guns with their
mounts and the stand of colors, pre-
sented by its students and graduates to
the United States at the opening of the
war with Spain for use upon the auxili-
ary cruiser ‘Yale,’ to be retained until
said guns may be required for use by
the Government.”
Shirts
IN COLORS.
The sooner one chooses his colored
shirts for the season, the better
pleased he will be. We have
just received seven hundred and
fifty different designs in Madras,
Cheviot, Oxford and the com-
bination Silk-and-Linen. We
will have the pure silk ones in
a few days.
Many graduates send to us from
all over the country. We can
send you samples and mak
you shirts wherever you are.
CHASE & CO,
New Haven House Block.
FRANK A. CORBIN,
TAILOR
TO THE
SIUDENIS.UFT YALE
AND TO THE
GRADUATES
in all parts of the country
Address :
1000 Chapel Street,
New Haven. Conn.
Scientific School Inventor.
Joseph Goodyear Wild, a member of
the Freshman class in the Yale Scien-
tific School and son of I. J. Wild, Yale
"67, Treasurer of the New Haven Gas
Light Co., has invented and recently
put on the market a telescopic mega-
phone for use on yachts and coaches.
In the accompanying cuts the instru-
ment is shown at its full length and also
folded, in which latter position it can be
stored in a small space when room is
needed. There has already been a
gratifying recognition of its good quali-
ties.
a
The Law School will again Grsanize
~a baseball team this Spring, and candi-
dates for it have already begun prac-
tising at the Field. A game with the
Harvard Law School may be played.
